It’s been building for years and it’s hard to decide when and where it starting gaining steam. Was it Nixon’s Southern Strategy in 1968? The Willie Horton commercial in the 1988 election? The emergence of Rush Limbaugh? The Monica Lewinsky affair and subsequent impeachment hearing? The 2000 election? The birther controversy around Barack Obama? I could go on and on. I’m sure it’s some of all of these.
Plus, as technology has allowed us to communicate more quickly to a broader audience, the ways news is delivered has changed. From 30 minutes each evening to 24/7 on TV. From a few minutes at the top of the hour to multiple hours of political talk radio programs. Personal communication has evolved from coffee shops to chat rooms to social media news feeds. These last several decades have seen a dizzying acceleration in the way information moves.
While a blessing in some ways, there have also been toxic consequences for our political debate.
This poison has infiltrated nearly every form of public discourse. Sure, the founders of our nation were not the most pleasant people sometimes. As many people may have learned thanks to the musical Hamilton, they even occasionally settled disputes with duals. They called each other names and could be rather uncivil.
In the past, our nation went to war against itself, costing hundreds of thousands of Americans their lives. Brother often turned against brother and the echoes of that conflict are likely one of the unground rivers feeding this current rise in internal conflict we face.
There is a cancer running through the veins of this nation. Hate and division are boiling to the surface. Democrats argue that Republicans are heartless. Republicans argue that Democrats are socialists. We have become the outrageous, over-simplified labels affixed to our beliefs. We consider those we disagree with to be caricatures of some evil enemy.
We did not just get here on our own however. Politicians exploit these differences to hold or obtain power. News outlets harness it to sell news. Demagogues on both sides stoke the fires of hatred for their own benefit.
While it is far from perfect, our system of governance is pretty good. Sure, there are adjustments we should consider as time marches forward and the realities of the world change. But the system is not the fundamental problem.
Our problem quite frankly is us.
We have bought into the idea that what divides us supersedes what unites us. We have absorbed the relentless stream of noxious dialogue which says if you disagree with me, you are an existential threat to this country and my way of life.
Save for a handful of extremists on both ends of the spectrum, our goals are closer together than they are apart. Why does one side support lower taxes and the other higher taxes? They both believe it’s the best way to help society succeed. They differ on how to get there.
Why does one side support more government involvement in health care and the other believes in a stronger, market-based health care system? They both believe that is the best way to provide quality health care.
Why does one side favor choice for women and the other side prefer to ban abortions? They both believe they are defending the rights of certain populations.
There have been countless articles, debates, books, and conversations about these topics, and they just scratch the surface. The rigorous debate is part of what makes this nation great. In a time when kings and dictators ruled much of the world several centuries ago, our founders created this system of government to “create a more perfect Union.”
Were their ideas revolutionary? Yes. Were they imperfect in the way they carried them out? Yes.
We are no different today. There are probably things many of us believe now that future generations will wonder what we were thinking. Slavery was written into our Constitution, but I don’t think any of us would include it today if we rewrote it.
Just like those who founded our nation over two centuries ago, we are all on a journey. We have differing opinions on which way to go. This is nothing new. Read The Federalist Papers and other writings of the founders. Read the debates leading up to the Civil War. Read and listen to speeches during the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and 1960s.
Advocate for what you believe in. Join in the public discourse. But as you do so, look at those with whom you disagree first and foremost as fellow Americans.
Will we have fundamental disagreements about some policies? Absolutely. Will those conversations be heated at times? I imagine so. But if our discussions dehumanize others and degenerate into name-calling and seeing who can outshout who, we lose our ability to live into the principles upon which this nation was founded.
Our behavior today often does not move us towards a more perfect Union. Much of it points towards disunion, a loss of one of the key factors that makes our nation great.
I offer the words of the Preamble to the Constitution: “We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”
We can argue all day about what each of these words mean and how to accomplish them, but I believe most people in this country truly want these goals to be achieved. Let’s stop tearing each other apart and focus on what brings us together first. Then we can and should address the differences we have about how to get there.
THAT is how we work towards creating the more perfect Union our founders envisioned.
Breaking Into Peace 